Need help creating your animal alternatives search? Contact Sally Smith (sally2@clemson.edu) or Shelby Carroll (sec8@clemson.edu)
This guide is copied with attribution from the Duke University Animals in Research: Searching Alternatives LibGuide.
The United States Animal Welfare Act (AWA) regulations require that Principal Investigators consider alternatives to procedures that may cause more than momentary or slight pain or distress to animals. This guide provides information and links to additional resources to help you conduct a thorough literature search to discover ways to reduce, refine, or replace the use of USDA-regulated species in research. You may find more information in the Animal Welfare Act (AWA).
Peruse this guide to:
Consider contacting a librarian to discuss your search. A librarian can help you choose the best databases to search, develop a search strategy, save your searches, and more.
What animals are USDA-regulated species? Any live dog, cat, monkey (nonhuman primate mammal), guinea pig, hamster, rabbit, or such other warm-blooded animal being used for research or education. As of 2/21/2023, birds not bred for research are also a USDA-regulated species. The regulation excludes rats of the genus Rattus and mice of the genus Mus, bred for research.
What animals are not USDA-regulated species? Mice, rats, fish, invertebrates, reptiles, amphibians or birds bred for research.
Although it is NOT necessary to search for animal alternatives for non-USDA-species, it is still recommended that you consider the 3 R's--outlined below--in planning your research.
You may also want to review the Clemson IACUC Policies and Resources page.
Searching for animal alternatives is typically guided by the "3 R's":
First described in The Principles of Humane Experimental Technique by Russell and Burch (1959).
Citation management tools allow you to save, share, and annotate references as well as create citations and bibliographies. Popular citation managers include:
